Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1887-12-15
THE LAW OF REST.
A MAN MUST SLEEP IN PROPOR-
TON 70 HIS LABORS,

Else lie CUrts:Is His Own Ability, Health,
Strength and Life-Habits Formed in
Childhood he Greatest Folly of Our
Modern Life.
A man must sleep in proportion TO his Ia
bors The average demand is eight hours, or
one-third OF the day. Whoever clips this is
sure 70 clip his cwn ability, health, strength
and life. There is no release from the law.
4 mal nay believe himself an exception.
For . short time he may seem to be such, but
he is dooued to illustrate the law with an
emphasis. There is no crash and break up
like that of a powerful man, when he gets to
c broken wheel He lacks the recuperGtive
power Of men compal qtively more fragile.
He cannot bend, he breaks. The probability
Is he viii betake himself 70 narcotics or slim
ularts-and after bondage of that sort go
out ANONYMOUSLY. No, there is one law that
must be obeyed- You must sleep or go to
pieces Grant said he could do nothing with
les than nine hours sleep. Napoleon was
superb sleeper; but when his ability to sleep
waned his power went with it.
I propose to suggest where the mistakes
arise that lead to sleeplessness. First of all
there IS a vital error with children. A child
should be in bed as the fowls are, at sundown
1t least. And he should be allowed TO rise in
the morning as soon as ne wakes. 1t is pot
only torture. but an unhealthy mischief, to
compel children TO lie in bed, awake, two
hours, 10 prevent disturbing older people.
aboininate night parties for children. be
Eeve every physician does. 1t is not SO much
the exposure, and the eating in the night, and
the bad associations fsrmed (of q high
toned sort, possibly but the breaking into
the sleep habit Equally bad is it for chill
dren TO study in the evening. 1t gorges their
brains with blood; and if they sleep they
dream. You cannot emphasize too strongly
the mischief of cllildren's night study.
Whatever {. stolid Let OF animal natures
can do, our American q ildren are sensitives
and cannot do-that is, fafely sleep two in a
bed. No matter in what else you economize,
there is a criminal folly in economizing beds.
Every person needs his own bed more than
he needs his own chair or his own plate at
table And the best bed in the world is
good bed of fresh straw covered with plenty
of quilts. No child should be allowed to
sleep on feathers or animal refuse of any
other sort But TO sleep two in bed is a
vital damage. One is sure to absorb the
electric energy OF the other. What We must
look for is to accumulate constitution for the
child, and establish a stout, conservative ten
dency. Our American life will be sure to
make heavy drafts CT him. If Ee has no
capital he can pay no interest. This habit
of sleeping alone should be retained through
life under all circumstances. More mischief,
as well as immortality, comes from the opposite
course than from any other common habit
\ good deal Of nonsense is sometimes pub
lished about sending children TO bed with
full stomachs. This is well enough so long as
a babe is an animal and has not awakened to
much use of the brain, but as soon as a child
has come to an age Of active thought he
should have a chance for light exercise and
sport after his meals, never, however, allow
ing him to go to bed excited. Above all
things to be deprecated is the stormy season,
so frequently indulged just at retiring. The
child prefers to sit up, and invariably retires
in q storm of passion, added to by the storm
Of nurse or parent He should be Calmlyand
firmly restrained from all such outbreaks.
There is u great difference in children about
retiring; some very active brains grow sleepy
and desire to retire early, others equally ac-
tive grow wakeful and excited.
When shall we break up our habits formed
in childhood? Most certainly they should
never be modified beyond the absolute de-
mands of life. The proper time to sleep is as
the active hours pass into the passive. All
nature at the withdrawal of light is luiled
into rest Man only, with a few predatory
animals, resists the impuls;on of nature, and
undertakes either to shorten his sleep or to
readiust his rest to later hours His power to
thus adapt himself is far more limited than
he supposes With the rGrest exceptions, each
person in turn, sooner or later, breaks down,
and must submit to nature or suffer the con-
sequences We have become nervous people,
because we do not sleep and recuperate. l
never have seen five Americans that slept too
much: 1 rarely have known one who slept
enough. There is no escaping the one great
law that life depends on rebuilding regularly
what is used up by daily activity. There
fore, I say, as far as possible, retire at an
early hour and regular hour throughout
life 1t viii lengthen as well as strengthen
your days beyond any and all other habits.
The great folly OF orr modern life is the
supposition that there can be any substitute
for sleep The stupidity produced by mar
cotics is a nocliery. It stops waste, to de-
gree; but it does not assist to any adequate
degrec in repair. The function of true sleep
is repair. OF all the narcotics, that which
gives the nearest resemblance to sleep is
choral hydrate. But its operation is so vio-
lent that it rapidly degenerates both the heart
and the brain When il does not kill out
right, it produces evils that are worse than
death-semi-lunacy and heart disease. No
drug has yet been discovered that can give
Us warrant for disobedience to natural i'm
pulses. Break up your habit for sleep, and
you are at once in danger. Put yourself
under the power of q drug, and you will be
slave more completely than any negro that
ever obeyed and suffered in rice swamp If
your bondage has begun, you must break it
bv returning to natural habits, or you will
die miserably. There is no escape from the
dill cmma Return to nature, sleep at natural
hours, and don't expect to live on your capi-
tai. but on the interest.-M. Maurice, II. d.
in Globe-DemOcrat.